I have substituted marrow this summer for carrot and celery in chicken soup with rice - it adds this really delicious, subtle top note when it's been cooked in homemade stock. Once you stop expecting marrow to taste like courgette, and accept that the flavour is much more delicate, you get loads more out of it!

A stuffed 'Marrow' is very tasty. What you do is take a nice sized 'Marrow'(small enough to fit in the oven) and slice through the one end with a sharp knife, about 1.1/2 -2" opposite end to the stalk. You then scoop out the inside fleshy part of the Marrow and seeds, and stuff with semi-cooked vegetables, fish, prawns, meat or whatever takes your fancy, place the end that you sliced through at the beginning, back onto the end of the 'Marrow' then wrap the whole thing in foil(as you would with a 'Turkey')making sure the end cap is positioned and sealed with the foil, then place in the oven on a baking tray at a medium - high heat setting for approx. 1 and quarter hrs, checking and turning occasionally to ensure an all over bake.

Chocolate courgette cake, I use the ones that have become large marrows...BBC recipe website is to die for. I also make lots of delicious chutney... and various other courgette cakes. In fact now I deliberately overplant so that I can stock up freezer and storecupboard with cakes and chutneys to last the winter and to give away.

You can also grow ball shaped courgettes / marrows. The bigger ones are fantastic stuffed with bolognese (as per Deirdre's comment) and baked in the oven. You also have the option of hanging on to them till halloween and using them as small green pumpkins!

They will give out at least 3/4 pint of water during the cooking process though, so use a deep dish and serve up the juices as a soup for starters!

Hi there, I recently saw a recipe for marrow and ginger preserve in the BBC's good food magazine (don't work for the BBC, I promise!) which looked really good, and would be worth a try if you've got them going spare. You might be able to find it on their website.

I am always slightly amused by the idea of picking courgettes when they are still small. As a French southerner, the whole idea of growing your own is that you can pick them when they are about 40cm long, not as the young watery vegetable you'll find in any supermarket. Then you'll be able to enjoy something which tastes of.. courgette and cook them in as many ways as your great grand mother, grandmother and your own mum taught you to do. YUMMY.